Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 2, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
There may be times when you need to "truncate" a number at a certain number of digits. For this purpose Excel provides the TRUNC worksheet function. TRUNC can work with either one or two arguments, as necessary for your purposes. When used with only a single argument, TRUNC simply drops off any part of the number after the decimal point. For instance, consider the following:
=TRUNC(12.34)
This returns a value of 12, which is everything to the left of the decimal point. This result may look familiar, and you may be tempted to think that TRUNC does the same thing as the INT function. There are several differences, however. Consider a scenario where the argument is less than zero:
=TRUNC(-43.21)
In this instance, TRUNC returns -43, not -44 as INT would. Remember, when using TRUNC with a single argument, it simply drops everything to the right of the decimal point.
If you use a second argument with TRUNC, you can specify the number of decimal places at which you want the truncation to occur. For instance, the following formula returns a value of 12.3:
=TRUNC(12.34,1)
If you use a negative value for the second argument, the truncation takes place to the left of the decimal point. This has the same effect as returning powers of 10. For instance, consider the following example, which returns the value of 1200:
=TRUNC(1234.5678,-2)
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11703) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Using the TRUNC Worksheet Function.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
Excel provides several different functions that you can use to generate random numbers. One of the most useful is the ...
Discover MoreIf you need to change the case of letters in a cell, one of the functions you can use is the PROPER function. This tip ...
Discover MoreExcel allows you to easily format cells with different fonts, borders, and colors. If you want to count the number of ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2021-10-05 03:45:08
Lars
Be careful
=TRUNC(1294,-2)
also returns 1200. It does nou round to powers of ten.
Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments